diff --git a/src/net/java/sip/communicator/impl/gui/main/chat/ChatConversationPanel.java b/src/net/java/sip/communicator/impl/gui/main/chat/ChatConversationPanel.java
index b66ae4d97..dab4d7033 100755
--- a/src/net/java/sip/communicator/impl/gui/main/chat/ChatConversationPanel.java
+++ b/src/net/java/sip/communicator/impl/gui/main/chat/ChatConversationPanel.java
@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@ else if(contentType.equals(HTML_CONTENT_TYPE))
             processedString = processImgTags(processedString,
                 contentType);
         }
-         
+
         return processSmilies(processedString, contentType);
     }
 
@@ -686,11 +686,6 @@ private String processSmilies(String message, String contentType)
         }
         else
         {
-            if (HTML_CONTENT_TYPE.equals(contentType))
-            {
-                message = removeAltFromHTMLSmilies(message);
-            }
-            
             startPlainTextTag = "";
             endPlainTextTag = "";
         }
@@ -699,6 +694,8 @@ private String processSmilies(String message, String contentType)
 
         StringBuffer regexp = new StringBuffer();
 
+        regexp.append("(?<!(alt='|alt=\"))(");
+
         for (int i = 0; i < smiliesList.size(); i++)
         {
 
@@ -714,6 +711,8 @@ private String processSmilies(String message, String contentType)
         }
         regexp = regexp.deleteCharAt(regexp.length() - 1);
 
+        regexp.append(')');
+
         Pattern p = Pattern.compile(regexp.toString());
 
         Matcher m = p.matcher(message);
@@ -741,64 +740,6 @@ private String processSmilies(String message, String contentType)
         return msgBuffer.toString();
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Removes alt content from the smilies contained in html messages. This
-     * is needed in order to process html smilies properly. If ':)' is not
-     * removed, then it will be replaced by the html <img> tag in the
-     * processSmilies method and this will cause having an <img> tag within
-     * another <img> tag and a malformatted html.
-     * 
-     * @param content the message content
-     * @return formatted messages content
-     */
-    private String removeAltFromHTMLSmilies(String content)
-    {
-        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
-        StringBuffer smileyRegexp = new StringBuffer();
-
-        //building supported smilies list
-        ArrayList smiliesList = ImageLoader.getDefaultSmiliesPack();
-        for (int i = 0; i < smiliesList.size(); i++)
-        {
-            Smiley smiley = (Smiley) smiliesList.get(i);
-            String[] smileyStrings = smiley.getSmileyStrings();
-
-            for(int j = 0; j < smileyStrings.length; j++)
-            {
-                smileyRegexp.append(GuiUtils.replaceSpecialRegExpChars(
-                    smileyStrings[j])).append("|");
-            }
-        }
-        smileyRegexp.deleteCharAt(smileyRegexp.length() - 1);
-
-        //creating pattern string. we want to remove all smilies that appear
-        //in the 'alt' attribute of an '<img>' tag, like <img alt=":)" src=... >
-        String imgPattern = "<img (.*alt=\"|')(.*?)"
-            + smileyRegexp.toString()
-            + "(.*?)(\"|')(.*?)>";
-
-        Pattern p = Pattern.compile(imgPattern, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
-        Matcher imgFinder = p.matcher(content);
-
-        boolean foundMatch = false;
-
-        //creating escaped message
-        while (imgFinder.find())
-        {
-            if (!foundMatch)
-                foundMatch = true;
-       
-            String matchGroup = imgFinder.group();
-            String replacement =
-                matchGroup.replaceAll(smileyRegexp.toString(), "");
-            imgFinder.appendReplacement(result,
-                GuiUtils.replaceSpecialRegExpChars(replacement));
-        }
-        imgFinder.appendTail(result);
-
-        return result.toString();
-    }
-    
     /**
      * Opens a link in the default browser when clicked and shows link url in a
      * popup on mouseover.